But the graphic cards wont be powered by the Pico as I wrote, it will be powered by the dedicated VGA PSU. Only 48w will be used for each grapic card. Thats the drain from the PCIE slot. The graphic cards priorities the PCIE slot and after that it use the extra power from the VGA PSU. It says so in this article: FSP VGA PowerSince the E6600 use 65W max it wont be enough anyway I guess..

The goal with this is that I dont want extreme heat in the chassi, but I want a stable fanless gamesystem. It will be cooled in a HFX Classic chassi with BORG heatpipes, but that is offtopic.

I might use the EF28 instead, it got 180W in the specifications for peak load. But it got only 10A on the 12V rail, how many ampere is needed to run a E6600?
Does the graphic cards ampere needs drain from the EF28 or does it take the ampere needed from the vga dedicated psu instead?
Sorry for the dumb questions, but I have no idea how ampere works. Wikipedia didnt help me either...

What's the point in getting the dedicated VGA PSU, if it's loud? It's not going to be any quieter than having a regular PSU in the case. The review you link to explicitly mentions that it's loud, due in no small part to the fact that it's cooled by a pair of 40mm fans.

I've just read the picoPSU article since I have a mini-ITX board on the way and I was looking for power sources.

Anyway, what catched my attention was the low power consuption of the AMD A64 3000+ venice on the DFI RS482 motherboard.

I've just assembled a system with a Asus N4L-VM motherboard and a mobile Core Duo T2400, single 80gb HD and dvd burner and I measured the system consuption at 42-45W, which is very close to the power consuption of the system used for the picoPSU review.

Anyone else was able to get such low power consumptions at idle with a Venice and a board with integrated graphics?

I ordered the older sibling, the PW-200-V from Short-circuit.com. With a Dell 220W brick or even the 12v from my power supply, it wouldn't even start my pc. The Motherboard lights come on, but once I hit the power button, the lights turn off and the system has no power. The guys at short-circuit said they spoke with the mini-box guys and they suggested I try the PicoPSU even though my load draw is close to the limits for the little thing. Well, I voiced these concerns in an email, and the reply was, "picoPSU-120 is a 200watt design with thermal limitations. Just try it and see how hot it really gets"....so, they're shipping me a pico once they recieve the PW200, they're also including a 4-pin atx cable for my troubles. If it works, I'll let you all know, and I'll update my system build thread.

I couldn't see the power bricks you used in the review on their page. There was nothing over 100W listed.

It would be really nice to see a test with a bigger brick (150W, say) to see how it handles in that power range (considering their own words, the picoPSU 120 is designed to handle 200W electrically).

Also, i see that they now have wide input models available, reducing the constraint that the brick output 12V. Considering one of my main motives for using these would be the higher efficiency, it would be nice to see this new regulating model tested.

The brick I'm using is the Dell Y2515 220W. I don't think I'd feel comfortable using the Pico unless the processor is undervolted. When it is undervolted, the system draws 83W from the wall idle, 100W when the CPU is fully loaded, and 130W when gaming. I'm pretty happy with the results, lets just hope it doesn't burn up on me!

The brick I'm using is the Dell Y2515 220W. I don't think I'd feel comfortable using the Pico unless the processor is undervolted. When it is undervolted, the system draws 83W from the wall idle, 100W when the CPU is fully loaded, and 130W when gaming. I'm pretty happy with the results, lets just hope it doesn't burn up on me!

Ah fantastic. I am considering a Geforce 8600, which consistently draws a bit less power than the X1950 Pro, so that's very useful. Now, i just wish we knew a bit more about the efficiency of bricks.

The brick I'm using is the Dell Y2515 220W. I don't think I'd feel comfortable using the Pico unless the processor is undervolted. When it is undervolted, the system draws 83W from the wall idle, 100W when the CPU is fully loaded, and 130W when gaming. I'm pretty happy with the results, lets just hope it doesn't burn up on me!

Ah fantastic. I am considering a Geforce 8600, which consistently draws a bit less power than the X1950 Pro, so that's very useful. Now, i just wish we knew a bit more about the efficiency of bricks.

Time for a brick roundup!

well, I can do some tests...I know the AC watts the pc is drawing, I can measure the 12v line for current, so I could figure out the efficiency of mine at a few loads, assuming my ammeter is fused for something like that.

The brick I'm using is the Dell Y2515 220W. I don't think I'd feel comfortable using the Pico unless the processor is undervolted. When it is undervolted, the system draws 83W from the wall idle, 100W when the CPU is fully loaded, and 130W when gaming. I'm pretty happy with the results, lets just hope it doesn't burn up on me!

Ah fantastic. I am considering a Geforce 8600, which consistently draws a bit less power than the X1950 Pro, so that's very useful. Now, i just wish we knew a bit more about the efficiency of bricks.

Time for a brick roundup!

well, I can do some tests...I know the AC watts the pc is drawing, I can measure the 12v line for current, so I could figure out the efficiency of mine at a few loads, assuming my ammeter is fused for something like that.

ok, well, I've never tested current, but still, I tried. I put one of the test leads from my multimeter in the 10A slot, and kept the other in the COM, touched one lead to the positive, but when I touched the other to the negative, it sparked....and that's the end of that. No damage to the system, but I don't think I'll be trying it again. One thing I've noticed on the Pico, the solder points for the 12v in look burned. I wonder if I'm pushing it too hard? Or is this normal?

well, I just had Age of Empires 3 running, windowed, while watching a movie, and the system drew 134W from the wall. I had it running like this for ~3 hours. No issues at all, except for the fact that AOE3 likes to turn it's own volume up whenever you alt-tab away, and then back to it.

I just received the picoPSU-120 kit yesterday. The power brick has no fan. I also ordered the 4-pin p4 cable for $2, making the total $57. I'm building a quiet HTPC MythTV box. I'm using the ABIT AN-M2HD motherboard, an AMD BE-2350 CPU (2.4GHz, rated 45w), and an 80GB Seagate laptop hard drive.

Linux scales the CPU down to 1GHz when it's not used heavily, like when playing music or SD video. I was amazed to see the box pulling only 20w. Under full load it's pulling around 57w.

I just installed this, so I haven't yet looked into long-term heat buildup since there's no PSU fan. I may have to turn on one of the case fans. The on-mobo video chip and north(south?) bridge have big heatsinks, but the CPU has the stock AMD cooler for now, which is the only fan in the system right now.

I just received the picoPSU-120 kit yesterday. The power brick has no fan. I also ordered the 4-pin p4 cable for $2, making the total $57. I'm building a quiet HTPC MythTV box. I'm using the ABIT AN-M2HD motherboard, an AMD BE-2350 CPU (2.4GHz, rated 45w), and an 80GB Seagate laptop hard drive.

Linux scales the CPU down to 1GHz when it's not used heavily, like when playing music or SD video. I was amazed to see the box pulling only 20w. Under full load it's pulling around 57w.

I just installed this, so I haven't yet looked into long-term heat buildup since there's no PSU fan. I may have to turn on one of the case fans. The on-mobo video chip and north(south?) bridge have big heatsinks, but the CPU has the stock AMD cooler for now, which is the only fan in the system right now.

I'll post more details once I've looked into the heat situation more.

Which brick did you get, the 100 Watt one? If i wasn't determined to have a decent graphics card in the system i'd just go with that and be done with it. I don't think the 8600gt will be happy with 100 W total system power, though.

I just discovered LinuxMCE today while looking for the latest on MythTV, and was completely blown away. It uses MythTV but also wraps a bunch of other packages to provide a very amazing "complete" experience. Considering i was going to put Misterhouse and MythTV on the new box i'm setting up to run fulltime, LinuxMCE seems like a great option.

My thinking at this point is an Antec/Veris Fusion V2 case with C2D and Geforce 8600, both of them undervolted and underclocked as much as is possible to reduce power. When i need HD decompression/filtering or a gaming fix, i'll rev it up. Otherwise, it will sit and PVR/serve automation events/etc. I'll worry about picoPSU-ing it when i have a fix on its power draw and perhaps a better idea what the efficiency of those bigger brick supplies is. Anyway, i'll take this to another thread, but --

Please, anyone capable of doing so: measure and report the efficiency of your bricks you are using for PicoPSU projects, especially those over 120W.

Would the Wide Input version of the picoPSU be as efficient as the regular one?

^^

19V vs 12V which is more efficient?

I don't have any data, but consider what's happening here. In the 12V PicoPSU, the adapter passes through the 12V supply without messing with it. That means that its supply for 12V (the vast majority of system power draw these days) is ~100% efficient.

In the wide input version, the PicoPSU must regulate all of the input power to the proper voltages, which is never done at 100% efficiency.

So, assuming your input power supply (brick) is the same efficiency for either case, the original 12V-only PicoPSU is going to be more efficient.

I don't have any data, but consider what's happening here. In the 12V PicoPSU, the adapter passes through the 12V supply without messing with it. That means that its supply for 12V (the vast majority of system power draw these days) is ~100% efficient.

In the wide input version, the PicoPSU must regulate all of the input power to the proper voltages, which is never done at 100% efficiency.

So, assuming your input power supply (brick) is the same efficiency for either case, the original 12V-only PicoPSU is going to be more efficient.

I see, thanks.

I was also asking because this 12V AC adapter has a (claimed) efficiency of >80% and its 19V counterpart has a (claimed) efficiency of >83%.

I've tried to estimate the components' power usage, but i am not sure if I have them correct.

I was going to use either the picoPSU-120 or the PW-200-M, but I don't know enough about the differences between the two, is it just wattage?, and whether the system i am building would work with the power brick mechanism.

I routinely build systems, but have never done this before. I am considering dropping the vid card since this will be exclusively an htpc. No gaming at all.

Somebody answer the man, i am looking at bidding exactly the same thing using the exact same components , the only difference is i will make my own case, and instead of 8600GT i was thinking of getting 2600 XT but that is an option as well.

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